London Bridge to Tower Bridge

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2nd January London



An enjoyable walk with our guide Charley walking from London Bridge to Tower Bridge along Queen’s Walk.

Surprised to see so many people without face masks when on most other tours around the world people do wear masks outside. I guess they are not mandatory here YET!



We started at London Bridge

Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is built from concrete and steel. It replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old stone-built medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of timber bridges, the first of which was built by the Roman founders of London.



In 1967, the Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. Council member Ivan Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was purchased by an American entrepreneur Robert McCulloch for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview.



Tower Bridge was completed in 1894 and needs to be raised to enable tall ships to pass under it. Until 1976, this was performed by steam-driven Victorian hydraulic machines.

It took eight years, five major contractors and the relentless labour of 432 construction workers each day to build Tower Bridge.

Some interesting facts from Charley





Tower Bridge was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales with great celebrations, on 30 June. 1894



The high-level Walkways, which were designed so that the public could still cross the Bridge when it was raised, were closed due to lack of use in 1910.



In the early 50’s London bus driver by Albert Gunter on its way across the Bridge, had to leap from one bascule to the other when the Bridge began to rise.



The Bridge was painted red, white and blue to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1997.

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